SUFIS AND YOGIS IN SHAH ABDUL LATIF'S PORTRY The whole Ril canbe reared a potcl expresion of he scr of the Paty yt ina umber of places Shah Lai has tenioned ctain prevequses, or danger, forthe waylarer tore extensively thin in otery and he har even devoted fee Sure completly to the desertion ofthe tre en of God, be they Sul or Yop: Hooter he ha never tried to systems Lr ought orto pat before his Bxteners complete node tion co Su doctrines of thi or that school of thought. None of the grat tartar iw mentioned, nor any of the sanctuaries to thick the inhabits of Sind flocked st many” ocasons. The ‘fa ebsencr wily everthelen, dsoverasufficent number ‘Fema tat hei him to frm an en of Shah Abdul ais Sry to gude the noe on the Bath ul he, or she, may have lsc Ste ate uf pettus Av in caved Sal hes Tttly basic artude for eveyone who wants to enter the Path ‘Mild since, (8 HI 4) athe say in Sur As “ccrding 10 the fae you ae hal (Aram) inthe tau we Aa Cabaem’s tsteontppng fe wi Dott elim hath you are ck a Thar in ao hypo hee thee the tine To Fete fc you area Min, utile there! ‘inion he Lrd thr kno ation ty. 0 od ya a pte make oy of te otha And! he takes up this remark about the double-feced hypocrite in the next ehapter of the same Sur That it not 2 kind of faith (Imin), as you call yourself one ttho uttors the profession of faith (kala), ‘There is treachery in your heart, axsociatonism, and Stan: Inthe foce a Muslim, Jou are an Adar in your interior. SUIS AND YOCISINSHAH ABDULLATIFS FORMS 191 You area tar infidlitydon' call yourself an infidel You are not at ela Hindu, the Brohmin's thread dacs not fit you, The easte-mark it for those, who are true in their paganism (ass 1V 14, 15), ‘That means, whether Muslim or Hinds, monothest oF idol wor shipper, man has to be sincere and nat to make claims to sanctity which he cannot realize. For i is easy to claim love with one’s tongue: the proof has to be given by undertaking the difficult way towards the beloved (BS II 3). Besides this central attitude of perfect sincerity so often praised in classical Sufi sayings, the novice should always act with adab, correct behavior towards everybody’ (Hus. IV 4). dab, as we savin Dard’s biography, was considered the conditio sine gua non both on the mystical path, and in everyday ie. It is said that Shah Latif was an uwaidt mystic, e.g that he had no formal spisitaal master, and hence did not belong to any of the acknowledged chains of initation. Yet, he quotes with ape proval an Arabic saying about the necessity of the mystical guide: “Who walks on the Path without shaikh?” (Dést If 3) and continues his instructions to Sassui with the famous Sufi saying: ‘Who has no shaikh, his shakh is Satan’ (i. 114). We saw easier that the methods of the mystical guide are described in some places with quite drastic images ‘Whosoever enters the path should know the different ranges in| the spiritual journey. Shah mentions them several times, though not always in proper order: they are the sharia, the divine las, the fariga, the mystical path, hegiga, the divine Truth, and/or ‘ma‘rfa, gnosis or intuitive knowledge which stands, for Shah [Abdul Tatif, either above hagiget or replaces t (Ramm. V 14, Kal, 124, Soh il 10 only three stages). Make the triqa your support, recognize the shasta, ‘make the heart acquainted with the hagiqa, know the place of ma rifa (Asi IV'40}. Motrifa, intuitive knowledge of God, is once called the pest (Ser. 117), which the divers in the ocean of the world srive to find. ‘The seeker who enters the path—as did Sassui—has to follow ‘exact rules: he has to leave greed (Sér. 16), the greatest danger12 “SHAH ABDUL LATIF OF ata 1 the soul, whieh should become poor and humble. Touba repentance i che means by which to cross the ocean of ie (Sar. 115) In this proces, be it teen asthe taming ofthe camel "haf? {as in Khanbhzt), as the Greater Holy War, o: as the journey to the sae port, s¢ in the songs of the seafarers, constant wakeful- ‘nes is required, but also tauakul, “rust in God’, a central qual: lay of the Sufi which embraces many utterances of complete self sunender into the wil of God, and hope for his help, as de- scribed particularly in Soring and Solid (VIL 9) Turn over all actions tothe Glorious sublin, Reclize complete surrender, having removed grief and thought, (Then) the Almighty will produce, by His grace, what you need (Sarit.112.) Patience, too, is essential, as Shah proves with Quranie and Pro- phetic words (ef. Dési IV 5, Ripa I 23). But patience, sebr, Should not be a one-sided attitude of the soul its correlative i sr, gratitude (Abri X 9f)- As much as Shab tells his heroines fo pricice putenee under de wfetions of love wy macs dues he teach them to reach the sage of contentment, rida, and of grati- rude. For: Allis sweet thet comes from the Beloved’ side~ ‘Tesi never bitter if you taste it with care (Kal. UI 11) Some of his ud"Bs express this eatiude in beautiful words, such asin the story of Sehnis Who tives at the door of the Giver with gratitude there is no limit 10 the praite which T would make for the Deloved (il) (Sob Mut wa 6)— ‘This is most probably an allusion to the Prophet tradition cannot reckon up Tay pease’ which was quoted by many mystics to show that they were incapable of praising God's mercy suff ciently since even the Prophet could not properly speak out the ‘due words of praise and laud. Shah Latif knows also the varying and shifting states of the tuavellr’s heart, and explains (o the lover that both gabd and. bast, ‘constraint’ and ‘extention,’ grief and joy, come from God (BS. 118) and belong together like the movement of breathing, SUIS AND YOGISINSHAH ABDULLATIFS rorss 193, othe systole and diastole ofthe hear, as sradiional Su image sry would, Al the wayarrs have to eam that the pth iso fc, the rountany 9 steep, tat they cannot take witht them any ‘hing that burdens their mind. Complete severing of relations ‘ef aba lug, thats what the Yo in Ramat and te here {fur Sirah experience (Rim. I, Vil 1, Sor TI 16), aed ‘vat Sas lars in the dese. They “bur the jangle of worldly desis (Kha Il 9), and ct the ee Existence” (Absit) In very moment the secker should fel ike rfc and mut be seady to sacrifice everything: hl qurban ma urn, both myst Gal sate and worllypossstons have to be gen up (im. V 16) One has fist to ge up the worl, then the otherwond by no longer eating forthe oy of Praieor faring Hl ie and Eventually even ge up the ‘giving wp fark artars that ‘means; that the perfected Sufi does no longer think of what he is Teaving behind, but is completely turned towards Gols and his vali surrendered into the will of God (Ast IV 4). And after “Gyng before death’ he nay reach the goal ofthe myst, fan, ation in God (Asi 117, Ket VI Ram, It 6) ‘hen, he igriaes the tsental unity bend the outward forms of eistene, and undestans tat the waves are man, but the ewence af water one From unity came multiplicity, multiplicity i all union; Realty is one: do ot be mistaken! He is ‘Mighty is His Greatness, jalil) He is all Beauty (ama), He is the image of the beloved, He i perfection of loveliness on) He Himself becomes master and disciple, He it all imagina- ‘And through Hi the state ofall things becomes known, He is this, and He i that, He is God, and He is deeth, He the Beloved, He the breath, He the enemy, and He the helper. (Kal. 115, 16, 18), His essential Perfection shows itsef in the interplay of Majesty and Beauty, of Wrath and Kindness, of Fie and Light. The pri rmordial unity was divided into eal and echo at the moment of196 SHA ARDULLATIFOF mar creation, but the annihilated mystic goes back and finds this Unity again, and ean sty with an application of the Quranic word ‘Whithersoever ye turn, there is the Face of God! (Sura 2/105 There isa catls with a thousand doors, swith windows beyond all courting, Wherever I turn my eyes there see the Lord (Kal. 120). Did not Mir Dacd sing ina Persian quatrain: When your heart sees Reality, Then every atom of creation it a window of His house asp In this state, where the Sufi has lost his self, even the ritual prayer is no longer required, nay, has become impossible (Asa 1 11, 12), at Halla had exelaitned in one of is verses Yen the Young ma’ (4 8 lov) mini ose pretin of revo Siler conn fem son nh th tle by nition ‘Reese wanes ay wa un aes fe i Fe hs i nye ts en Sep wai tney lve in unity, procaim sity wih al imbs, ad altho their eyes teen astep their hearts are awake (Ask IV 40) 3 the Prophet experienced Those, hove body ia rotary, the sola Bead ofthe rosary, the heart a tanboure— They py om th strings of the secret of wy ‘iets One, has no companton'=thus they og For thore leaping, umber worth for hem Bato reach ths sate, 4 long and painful way i necenary “The Voqs says Shah Lat are no compaions for weak people; they belong tothe spiritual ite whose vaya are much too high forthe ondnary believers, who would never be able to undergo the hardships ofthe path, Afterall, onl thse in whose preter. dal fate suc a love i writen will enter the desert, or dare swim in the dangerous rves “The Su?’ xp mut hve been sewn in rectemisy says Attar once, and Shah Latif i of the same ‘inion SUNS AND YouIS O'SHAHARDULLATINS FORMS 195, ‘The only more technical description of some Sufi terms, neme- ly of the stages of Divine manifestations, is Found in Sur Ramo Ali, the important chapter which also (the only time in the ‘RisdI61) contains the expresion ‘adam, ‘notbeing” a word often used by the mystics to denote the ‘abyss of the Godhead,” the innermost depth of the unqualified divine life as it was {rom eternity to eternity. Although allusions to the Path permeate the whole Rid, we may single out three Sur in which Shah Latif dwells more than fn others upon the requirements ofthe soul's journey, and which contain a comparatively greater mumber of mystical technical term. These Surs are Yaman Kalyé, which deals withthe ideal Sufi, and Ramokali, where the Yogie are praised as the perfect models of the sanctified man, further Khihdri, in which the ‘theme of the Yogis is once more claborated. An analysis of the ‘wo main Surs will show how the mystic of Bit interpreted the quest of the true seeker, and with which traditions he supported his theories. We should, however, nt forget that the language of both chapters, as of the other parts of the itd sometimes poses serious problems to the interpreter because ofits density, and because sometimes the pot seems to sacrifice grammatical larity for the sake of an elegant rhyme or alliteration, and we ‘may not be mistaken to see at Ieast in some of his verses exam: piles of that paradoxical language by which mystics all over the ‘world tried to hide their ideas rather than reveal them, oF at. tempted at awakening a non-ational anderstanding of the Truth in their Iisteners’ minds. But the picture ofthe Man of God, as it emerges from his sketchy verses, is impressive enough, and ex plains many ofthe images used in the other chapters. ‘Sur Yaman Kalyén is a derivation from Kalyén, and should be sung in the evening; eis meant to bring peace tothe soul. Yama ‘means, a8 the commentator states, ‘allusion, symbol, and indeed has Shah Latif put many symabolieal expressions, isha, into this, very Sur. Its analysis offers the following picure:? 1, (1-20, wa?4) 1-4 You the beloved, you the physician, you the medicine forpaint i Retina “i Ada Late nese dr wate Sli Fee cht Fite Me bes pt mofo ad open oe196 ‘SAH ASDUL LAT OF BEIT Sit in the mind chore ore hinds of sufferings, Lord, ‘heal! c master! the dl ones! “This is the topie of the first chapter of this Sur, and in a ‘terminology well known to the Sufis Stak Abdul Latif describes that the beloved is both lover ané physician, whose ‘sweet words’ fan cure those sith ‘destroyed hear,” an idea also expressed in ther parts of the Ril (thus Abri IV wi). Compared to im, the physicians of this world have nothing to offer, and if their Imedicines have any effect at all, then only thanks to his order. Bat while the earthy physicians try to heal the lover by means of drags end powders the beloved teare open his wounds time and again, Thus the lover eres out 6. Hi, beloved! Lift the hand, don't take it down, be Ina? (0 my friend, I may dle from my wound so that Imay sein honor! “The beloved is asked to take out his azow from the quiver, and “wherever ths arov bite there uhe kelp of the plysicians is of no ‘val. Only the word ofthe friend can cure the smarting lover “This meditation about wounds and suffering, about nightly ‘weeping and the recollection ofthe friend extends over 19 verses; in the last verse before the 1d, the poet makes one of his Ineroines describe the true lover 0 dear mother, Eda not trust those who shed tears; having brought water into their eyes, they show them to the world Those who think of the beloved do nether ery nor do they speak, Silence is recommended throughout the Risl6: to divulge the secret would be the major sin which makes true union impor se. In Chapter I, (1-19, tf), this motifs ever more elaborated. ‘Only the view of the beloved is medicine for sick people. But abstinence is also required: the stupid people who follow the appetites of their lower selves ean not be cued. 8. If you want to meet the friend, then lear from the thieves, whose festival is ¢0 Be awake~no res all night SUMS AND YouISHeSHAH ABDULLATIFSFORMS 197 searching round they have come, uttering no words they hase ascended the gollows, they do not explain othing ‘The lovers wil rach the vision of the beloved trough nightly vit saying em sence order to gn the Maen ie and even i they were led bythe kaif, would not divlge thei goa, Tn this last line the allusion to Hal's death on the gallows is clear; for he was executed, as legend has ifr openly proeaie Ing the secret of loving union. The motif ofthe thet found already in the pocms of Shah Latite ancesoe, Shah Abdul Karim It may bE that a story told by Attar as influenced ths imagery: in the Tadbkiat al-Auliya® he says about Junaid of agdad, in the Mugibaintme, however, about Shbli that he ed the et fa ht wh iad eon ange fo hs man as perfect in his profesion and had to ey for hs pesfecon with ethane my cone, ele eer 30, Wht the picts ere ete end ning came to my door “The pain went for off with the coming of my wonder fal rend). ‘And the lover cries out 18. 0 physicion! Do not give pulverized medicemente! May Inot become better! My beloved may arve, and help me one day! ‘his topic is carved over into the mw, too. Not to be healed is preferable, for only when the pain becomes intolerable, the ‘Physician wil appear. One century later, Ghalib sang in Delhi ‘When pain ansehen, it becomes medicine * “The third chapter (1-27, wi 4) begins with a ery, for the fire of love bum the lover— Come and see face 20 fece, if you do not believe! His liver, [kidney and intestines are roasting on the skewer, an image that Rie Tate 8; badn 9/2 ‘hat ren ae ai hss198 sua asDuL LAT leads again to that of the arrow, which pierces the flesh (¥.7 contains the different names of the arrow) and can not be taken Ask the moth about the news of their burnings who, being aloe, pu their existence inthe fire, whose lvers~the spears af love have touched them! “The motif of moth and candle (9-13), based on Halls short but pplguanc allegory in the Kitab at-owasin, taken up hee, but is Tess claborate than in comparable Persian or Turkish mystica, poety. (14) In fact, the moths enjoy themselves in burning and Become like lovely Rowers, (15) but they should be silent lest Jgnorant people eause separation between them and the beloved “This imagery of fire, very popular in Persian, and expecially in 18th century Indo-Perian poetry, lends Shah Abdul Latif tothe mage of the blacksmith’s fire (17 f): the mystical guide i the Blacksmith who knows the qualities of the raw ore and works upon it until he transforms it into valuable stel. Likewise, the spiritual guide cleans his disciple from rust, puts him into the fice fof suffering ro that he mature, hardene him with cold water and ‘eventually polishes him until he reaches, as Ghalib would sty, the ‘degree of af saigal, a highly briliant quality which is cleverly ‘connected, by the later poet, with the letter ali, the cypher of God's unity? Shah Abdul Lauf, however, does not enter into such subtle speculations. He uses the symbol ofthe blacksmith in two more places, once, very similar to this verse, in Rémabalt (see p. 227), although i is not very common in traditional imag ‘ry. One may add o these examples that Maru is praised beexuse hher perseverance has melted the chins in her prison (Mir. XI). [As for the motif of the iron ia fire, it goes back to the clasial ‘ui tradition, att was knovn before in Christian tnystical theol- (gy from at lest the writings of Origines onward, n the Persian tradition, the best known relevant passage i that in Rumi's Math ais, where the poet describes the experience of mystieal union ‘with the tle of the log of iron in the fire: eventually, the iron calls out ‘I am the fire”, although its essence is still different fom, and can never be the same as fie—that is how Maulana ‘explains the secret of Hallas And'tagg.* The wa, then, de- TBR asaya, var ae eg mt SUMS AND YouIs SHAH ABDULLATIFS FORMS 199, seribes the arival of the beloved who quickens the thinty by ‘making them drink from the depth ofthe sa (of grace) and takes sway illness ftom the sick Chapter IV (1-25, wa’) continues the imagery of the last ‘wit, 4. that of drinking ad intoxication. 2 One goblet—two persons: love does not do thus? They put awey duality, when the dagger of love ar Poets may put different goblets before the drinkers, but not so the true lovers (the Persian quotation bar kis, bai, agi, ‘Get up, eupbearer, and give! may be intended to point to traditional Persian poetry, perhaps to Hafiz) 4. Where there are ten millions of murderers, there turn your eves, Poisons sought by those who do not care for life ‘The true guides put poison into the cup and make ic circulate ‘may we think of a variation of Hall's famous quateain nad, in which he combines the mosf of the cupbearer with that ofthe executioner?” The perfect mystical guide isthe wineseller who has poisorlike wine, an expression that occurs almost verbatim im Kabir’s mystical poetry. It should be remembered that the halal or wine